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Posts Tagged ‘vintage brooches’

Fashionable Favorite Things: A Volmer Bahner Brooch

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 13, 2023| 4 Comments »

Welcome to something new – Fashionable Favorite Things, which will alternate every other week with the ODFL traditional Fashionable Quote of the Week.

OK, so I don’t need another brooch. But need had nothing to do with this purchase.

Last fall I popped into a new-to-me consignment shop with the idea of mentioning it in one of my future fashion columns (for the Lamorinda Weekly). I was excited to see that Divine Consign in Lafayette carried quite a lot of vintage clothing and jewelry.

As I perused the jewelry (Bakelite, cameos, rhinestone necklaces, and more) this brooch caught my eye. I knew what it was immediately – a mid-century Danish enamel calla lily by Volmer Bahner.

Sure enough the brooch is marked on the back VB Sterling Silver. Bahner (1912-1995) was a Danish artist known for sculptures and modernist jewelry. After WWII he opened his own silver workshop where he created nature-inspired jewelry in silver and enamel.

This brooch is in pristine condition and when I saw the very reasonable price tag it was was mine. Since then I have worn it on sweaters, jacket lapels, a hat, and my fondness for it has only increased. Like a small piece of art, I enjoy just looking at it. The sleek design and the beautiful dark red enamel speak to me. The craftsmanship is excellent and there’s no wonder why VB brooches are very collectible.

It’s a good choice for fall and winter, so I will put it away pretty soon in favor of spring colors. I look forward to wearing it again in the fall.

It has definitely been a favorite thing!

(For local readers interested in vintage I encourage you to check out Divine Consign at 1014 Oak Hill Road, Lafayette – right off highway 24.)

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The Twelve Days of Brooches: Day Eleven

Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Fox brooch by Lea Stein.

Today we’re looking at a brooch from of my Lea Stein collection. I find these unique plastic brooches in London, usually at the Monday Antique Market in Covent Garden but they can be found in shops as well. I’m drawn to her pieces for their multi-dimensional quality, unusual textures and … her images make me smile.

Although there’s a bit of mystery surrounding Ms. Stein, we know that she is a French artist who in the 1960s, with her husband, came up with a way to layer and laminate thin sheets of plastic. This layering technique allows Ms. Stein to create texture by adding pieces of material, such as lace or metal, in between the layers. After cooling, the plastic is cut into all kinds of shapes from Art Deco women in hats (an early design) to owls, cats, and dogs. Animals seemed to be favored and today they are among the most collectible.

There are some copycats out there now, but a true Lea Stein is signed on the pinback.

My stylish fox gets a prominent place on the shoulder of a black A-line wool dress I like to wear to afternoon parties or sometimes I place him on the lapel of a coat. He gets a lot of attention whenever I take him out.

Come back tomorrow for the last of the series.

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The Twelve Days of Brooches: Day Ten

Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on January 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

We’re on Day Ten of The Twelve Days of Brooches and today we have a vintage rhinestone flower brooch.

This brooch was given to me by my mother and I think perhaps it had belonged to her mother and all that makes it special to me, but there’s another reason it’s close to my heart.

This brooch was the inspiration behind a key thread in the middle grade novel that I wrote and have recently been revising. In fact, the brooch in the novel is an important clue to the mystery. Writers often use objects as inspiration or guides for their writing and when I was working on the scenes that included the flower brooch, I would place this one in front of me and sometimes stop and imagine it inside the story where it has a very full life on the Tube in London. It’s nothing special otherwise, it has no markings, but it’s well made and it has a lot of presence. I don’t wear it often, but sometimes I pin it to an evening bag for extra sparkle.

Only two more days to go. Come back tomorrow and see what’s next.

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The Twelve Days of Brooches: Day Nine

Posted in Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on January 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

We’re coming close to the end of The Twelve Days of Brooches and Day Nine is a nod to the writer or pen enthusiast.

This charming brooch popped up while I was searching through a box of buttons at the Alameda Antique Faire. Since I’m a writer, of course it had to be added to my collection. It is black enamel on gold tone and it has a little rhinestone on the nib (tip). As I said, charming.

I wear this on the lapel of a blazer whenever I’m going somewhere for professional writers, like a conference.

Come back tomorrow for Day Ten and another brooch story.

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The Twelve Days of Brooches: Day Four

Posted in Arts, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , on December 28, 2022| 1 Comment »

Tweeting vintage bird brooch signed Boucher.

Welcome to Day Four of The Twelve Days of Brooches. Today we have a special vintage piece signed Boucher. As in – French born Marcel Boucher, jewelry designer for Cartier.

Mr. Boucher was moved from Paris to the US by Cartier in the 1930s. He later took a job with another jewelry company and then in 1937 he founded his own company. He created bold pieces of jewelry often of animals and birds. His “fantasy birds” of the 1940s are particularly sought after. Achieving much success, he continued designing and manufacturing until his death in 1965. After that his wife took over the business until she sold the company in 1972.

My charming bird dates sometime after 1955 and I’m not sure where I got him, but a good guess would be that he was a Christmas stocking stuffer from my mother. She continued to give me a Christmas stocking long into my adulthood and often tucked in one or two pieces of vintage jewelry.

Boucher Bird is just the guy to add a little whimsy to a summer tote bag.

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The Twelve Days of Brooches: Day Two

Posted in Arts, Events, Fashion, Uncategorized, Vintage, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Day Two of The Twelve Days of Brooches is a vintage 1950s rhinestone flower and it has an interesting story.

This brooch ended up with me by mistake.

The year was 1993 and I was working as an extra on the film Golden Gate starring Matt Dillon and Joan Chen. It’s the story of an FBI agent (Dillon) in 1950s San Francisco and a young Chinese woman (Chen). The filming took place in SF and around the Bay Area. I was called in to work as an extra for a nightclub scene in downtown Oakland. What a blast that night was!

We were told to bring our own clothing – anything dressy that would work for the 1950s. Given my vintage collection that was easy for me. I brought a simple column knit dress in black (my mother’s) and a black faux fur coat (luckily, as we worked outside until the wee hours of the morning and it was cold). They gave me shoes, did my makeup and hair, plopped a hat on my head and added this rhinestone brooch to my coat. There were probably thirty or so other extras, mostly men who were cast as FBI agents. The funny part about that was that all the guys had long hair and one by one they got their hair chopped off because whoever heard of an FBI agent with long hippie hair? (Apparently some of the guys, who didn’t have long hair, were found by the film’s producers hanging out at a Frank Sinatra club in the Haight in SF.) It was a lighthearted gathering of extras and we had fun together.

Here are some of us hanging out together waiting for our scene. I am the third from the left wearing my mother’s 1950s knit dress.

My “part” was a woman hanging off the arm of a well-dressed gentleman. We were in a crowd of people finding our way down a dark alley with FBI agents hiding behind every nook and cranny. I decided to play it drunk and that allowed me to make a lot of noise and stumble around a bit. I’m pretty sure you can hear my laugh echoing into the night at the very end of the scene as we went down a few steps and into the nightclub.

There were maybe a half a dozen takes and when we were released at around 3am all of us were eager to go home. No one remembered the brooch on my coat. I discovered it a few days later and even though it’s not something I’d choose to wear, I keep it for the memories of that unique evening.

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